# When & why did you start smoking a pipe?



## adeadmanrising (Oct 9, 2012)

I'm 36 years old and just became a pipe smoker. It's a new hobby but I love it. Would love to hear your stories. Here is mine:

I'm a writer, and CS Lewis is my favorite author. He smoked a pipe.

I've always liked the idea of smoking and good conversation, but cigars often make me nauseous and I can't finish them (weak I know). I wanted something where I could enjoy the flavor of the tobacco without getting "smoked" (the term I use to describe the feeling that you can't take another breath of smoke without passing out). 

I'm working on getting my Literature degree in order to teach Literature at the college level. Along with funny hats I think I just wanted to look like the stereotype. 

I enjoyed my first pipe with my brother in law while sitting in the mountains of Colorado. It didn't go so well for me and I had to relight several times. It's only two months later and I can usually get through a bowl without a re-light. Things are going much better. I find it relaxing and calming to enjoy a smoke. 

What's your stories? What inspired you to pick up your first pipe.


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## houncer (Dec 15, 2011)

I got my first pipe to annoy my mother-in-law. Funny thing is, I've only smoked once around her in two years and she liked the smell. Oh well!


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

19 years old because I was bord with cigars and would never take up cigs but had a animal desire to burn something. Lol p


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Started smoking a pipe in 1961, when I went to the University of Virginia and discovered Mincer's Pipe Shop. (No, not THAT Mincer, his older brother Robert) Long since moved to a bigger location and the pipes replaced with sporting paraphernalia and UVa souvenir junk, at the time it contained everything from Dunhills to cobs. I soon had a sampling of the better pipes, under the mentoring of Mr. Mincer, a Sasieni FourDot, a GBD, Comoy's, BBB, Wade, and a couple of the excellent Comoy's (or so I was told) seconds from the basket by the cash register. I smoked Dunhill tins, for the most part, Flying Dutchman at parties. Even had a meerschaum.

I had picked up some more pipes by 1980, still smoking those Dunhill tins and Balkan Sobranie Mixture. All but three of them were stolen from my car in a motel parking lot. (Along with a lot of other stuff -- I was moving.) I sort of gave up and went virtually all cigarettes, the easy way out. You may find it hard to believe, but I was really attached to those pipes.

I finally got back to pipes full time in 2010 and stay away from the nails these days.


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## 36Bones (Aug 18, 2011)

Like most people, both my grandfathers and my dad, smoked pipes. My dad was also a cigar smoker. I never saw any of them smoke a cigarette. Pipe smoking is hereditary for me.


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## El wedo del milagro (Jul 3, 2012)

I never smoked tobacco as a kid. I started cigarettes when I joined the Army because everyone else did. I know... I know, that is just about the stupidist reason to do anything. I'm not a Contrary, but I do take pride in having my own mind now in middle age, and not caring what most folks think. 

After smoking cigarettes for a few months, they started tasting bad. Pipe tobacco always smelled so good, I gave it a try and it tasted as good as it smelled. So for many years I smoked both, flip flopping back and forth depending on how bad I wanted nicotine.

I quit cigarettes about twelve years ago, and quite the pipe and tobacco altogether about ten years ago. 

Last spring I impulse bought a good cigar after smelling one. I loved it. I spent all Spring collecting cigars, and setting up three humidors and one coolidor. My goal was to have enough cigars that they all would get a two year rest with me smoking one to two a day. By the beginning of Summer, I had two MM cobs, and was smoking a couple bowls a day of OTC stuff and was down to just a few cigars a week.

I told myself the pipe was to save money, and help my cigars age, but the truth was the pipe was always my favorite. I was great with the mechanical side of the pipe, but had only smoked OTC stuff all my life. So I came over to this side of the forum to learn about quality pipe tobacco, and BOY, am I getting an education.

I now have several pounds of pipe tobacco resting in unopened tins and jarred up. And my cigar collection which used to be a roughly two year supply (at 1.5 a day), is now a fifteen or sixteen year supply at one a week.

I'm no crazy "prepper", but I do strongly believe the power is gonna go out and stay out a couple years in my lifetime. While governmental collapse is possible, I'm more scard of our sun. It has many solar cycles, most of which are peaking right now... the next decade and a half poses a real threat of knocking out transformers around the planet. It could take YEARS for the new transformers to be built, that is once the factories are powered again and re-staffed. 

In the 1880's there was a solar flare that caused all the telegraph machines to start throwing off sparks. The operaters unhooked the batterys and the sparks didn't stop. The machines that had paper drums to record on caught fire. Some of the copper telegraph lines strung on poles melted. A solar flare like that one, if it happened today, would cripple us. All computers, and computer chips would be fried along with all the electric distribution transformers. If yer car is made in the last twenty, to twentyfive years it ain't gonna start. It's computer chip will be fried. All of our utilities are run by computers that don't work anymore. EVERYTHING is run by computers today, mostly without ANY manual backup controlls.

The fear of this scenario lead me to learn alot of useful skills. Now the old fear is just a mild worry. I know how to plant a field and bring it in, and even store it the way my greatgrandparents did. I raise chickens, and know how to raise rabbits, along with knowing how to clean and prepare them. I know how to raise, bleed, scald, and butcher a hog. I know how to fish, and hunt, and process game. I know basic first aid. I know how to use, and own, hand tools from a century and a half ago. I know how to make adobe bricks. I know how to ferment and distill. I hoard seeds, tobacco, salt, and ammo. I have at least 500-1000 rounds for each of my favorite weapons. I only own one .22, but I have more than five thousand rounds in .22cal. I figure along with the seeds and tobacco, a small handful of .22 rounds will be a wonderful trade item. I have a small solar generater and lots of different water filters in different capacieties and sizes. I know how to can. I know simple mechanics. I know a dozen different card games and have a good sized box with maybe 40ish decks of cards in it. I know how to follow a bee back to it's hive. I know how to make soap from fat and ashes. I know how to tan a hide with brains. I know how to tan a hide with urine. I have an enduro bike with no chips, and I've "hardened" the wiring and electrical system. It should work after a major solar flare and even an EMP pulse. My next goal is to convert it to ethanol. I know how to dig a well and a latrine. I know how to shape a stream with a pick, shovel and tanker's bar to attract trout. I know how to attract birds and game to my property. And so much more...

I still have many skills I wanna learn. This Winter I plan to learn knitting. And next Spring ceramics.


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## TheRooster (Jul 18, 2012)

I'm not sure whether to applaud or back away slowly.


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## El wedo del milagro (Jul 3, 2012)

TheRooster said:


> I'm not sure whether to applaud or back away slowly.


Like I said, I'm no scary Prepper.

My goal is help my community, the village I live in, and save lives. I'm a Christian, and my heart is wide open to everyone.

An example of my thinking: The solar generater isn't so I can watch DVD's, it's to run a refridgerater so the old folks on my street can keep meds cool.


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## gahdzila (Apr 29, 2010)

I smoked cigarettes for years. I was a self professed expert at quitting, as I'd quit soooo many times, with varying degrees of success, only to eventually fall back into the same old addiction. I quit for the last time in October of 2009. Around the first of the year, I started to fall back into that same old pattern again. "Just one, just this once" turned into "a couple of cigarettes a week isn't bad" turned into "just one a day, just for now, I'll quit for sure next week." Around that time, a friend introduced me to premium cigars. I made myself a deal - I would allow myself to smoke all the cigars I wanted as long as I didn't inhale and as long as I wasn't smoking cigarettes. It worked! Three or four premium hand rolled cigars a day is a rather expensive habit, even when you do like I did and prowl the auction sites, buy exclusively online, dig through forums for "what's the best cheap cigar" threads, etc. So around fall of '10 I looked to pipes as a way to save money. Pipes were mainly a once-in-a-while thing for me for a long time, until I began to discover blends that would really satisfy me as well as a cigar (probably had to do with progressively developing a palate for pipe tobacco as well). It took about a year before I could stop calling myself "a cigar smoker who occasionally puffs a pipe" and started calling myself "a pipe smoker who occasionally has a cigar." 

Like Mark, I've now got quite a collection of cigars...what would have been perhaps a six month or one year supply is now probably enough to last me five years. I still smoke a little petit corona in the morning before I go to work because it's quicker and more convenient than a pipe, but the only other time I smoke a cigar now is when I'm driving or traveling.


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## Hambone1 (May 31, 2011)

I started smoking a pipe back when I was an Active Duty Marine, around 1986. The guys in my office would all smoke cigarettes and it was terrible, even the OIC smoked cigarettes! I had actually asked the OIC if he could make everyone smoke outside and not in the office. You should of seen the look on his face, he looked at me like I was crazy. 

So I than tried to fit in, I started to smoke cigarettes in the office too. I couldn’t stand them and I was unable to inhale them. I would just puff on them. That last all of about 1 pack, not that long at all. So I got frustrated and decided I was going to get even with all of them. I went out and purchased some of the fattest, nastiest cigar I could find. I would light one or two of them up at a time. We had smoke in the office about 6 inches thick on the ceilings. It was insane. 

The cigars lasted about a month, I didn’t like the taste of them and they made no impact on office attitude. So I was cursed with having to suffer from second hand smoke (cigarettes) in a small confined area. 

But than I remembered that my step dad used to smoke a pipe and I had always liked that smell. So I got me a pipe and some tobacco from the local grocery store. I smoked that pipe for about 1 ½ years before it faded for me. I had no idea about tobacco stores or about good tobacco. All I had experience was over the counter tobaccos throughout my time smoking my pipe. In retrospect, I probably gave it up due to lack of funds while in the military and lack of exposure to a good variety of tobacco. 

Fast forward to about 2 years ago, my wife talked me into going to the mail with her while she got her nails done. She stated it would take about 20 minutes. 20 minutes my azz! After an hour of waiting around and she still wasn’t done, I decided to take a stroll through the mail. Low and behold I came acroos Tobacco Lane in the mall. I walked in and opened up some of their house blends and I was hooked. I purchased a basket pipe and a couple house blends. And that’s when I also became aware of ‘tins’ of tobacco. Everything I had ever purchased had come in pouches.

Once I got home I immediately started to surf the internet looking and researching for anything Pipe related, I than found this site. Which then lead me down this slippery slope at a break neck pace! I now have over 20 pipes and a Tobacco Cellar Summary - 9 open containers, 83 cellared containers holding 15 lbs 2.2 oz. With no end in sight! Thanks BOTL!

I now also smoke a cigar from time to time, but nothing compared to pipe smoking.


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## The Mad Professor (Jul 13, 2011)

Good topic, I'm enjoying reading everyone's story! I never miss an opportunity to tell mine either. :tu

I've smoked cigarettes since I was 18 (I'm 31 now), and I started on cheap cigars around that time too. Puffed a lot of Swishers and Backwoods, and later a lot of Black & Mild's. I actually tried a corn cob at 18 too, but only once - we thought it was funny to walk around old town San Diego puffing a pipe, but no one really gave a crap. :lol:

My cousin introduced me to the world of fine cigars about five years ago, and I'd occasionally pick up a few for special occasions, but never kept any on hand (until Shuckins bombed me! :tu).

About a year and a half ago a good family friend started smoking a pipe after quitting cigarettes. He had gotten bit by PAD, buying estate pipes off of ebay and restoring them - he had at least 20 or so at the time (but he was only smoking Captain Black!). I was interested in them, asked some questions thinking I might try it out some day. I've always thought pipes were very cool, but never really thought about smoking them. Anyway, he ended up packing me a bowl in one of his pipes and afterwards told me to keep it. It was an old Marxman Rhodesian, and its still the best smoking pipe I own. A little while later I started looking for info on the web, found Puff, did the Newbie Sampler, and down the slope I rolled! 

It's been a fun ride and I've learned a friggin TON from this site. Thanks guys!!! :yo:


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## StogieNinja (Jul 29, 2009)

When: This past year. 
Why: Puff peer pressure. 


ipe:


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## Chris0673 (Aug 20, 2012)

I've always hated cigarettes and most cigars. Just can't stand the smell. However, I've always loved the smell of pipe tobacco and always said if I ever took up smoking it would be a pipe. Well, a couple months ago I was involved in a VBIED attack on our FOB in Afghanistan and I realized life is just too short to not enjoy it to the fullest. So...I went online looking for info on pipes. I found this site and pipes and cigars. It was not long after that my first order came in. I am now the proud owner of 1 Dr. Grabow and 2 MM Cobs. I recently won my first fleabay auction for a JIMA smoke sytem and two other pipes that I am looking forward to restoring when I get home. Thanks to a gracious bomb from Carl, I now have a nice sampling of tobacco. Two days ago I ordered my first actual tin of tobacco (Angler's Dream). 

I am enjoying my ride down this slippery slope and look forward to increasing my inventory of pipes and my stock of tobacco.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Hambone1 said:


> Once I got home I immediately started to surf the internet looking and researching for anything Pipe related, I than found this site. Which then lead me down *this slippery slope at a break neck pace!* I now have over 20 pipes and a Tobacco Cellar Summary - 9 open containers, 83 cellared containers holding 15 lbs 2.2 oz. With no end in sight! Thanks BOTL!
> 
> I now also smoke a cigar from time to time, but nothing compared to pipe smoking.


That "breakneck speed" of which you speak is a result of the acceleration due to gravity, 32 ft/sec/sec. Looks to me like you missed a turn and went right over the side, straight down, Shawn. :faint:


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## mcgreggor57 (Nov 3, 2011)

Circa late 70's in college because that's what college kids did. I probably smoked into the early 80's but had no frame of reference or reinforcement to keep me inspired. 

Fast forward to January this year when Tashaz thought it would be funny to bomb me a pipe starter kit..cob, cleaners, tampers and baccys. (Very funny Warren!) Since then it's developed into an enjoyable hobby. The Puff community is filled with enablers and has kept me motivated and educated.


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## 36Bones (Aug 18, 2011)

Aninjaforallseasons said:


> When: This past year.
> Why: Puff peer pressure.


We are a bunch of meanies, aren't we. :mischief:


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## senetsomed (May 31, 2012)

When i was on my 20's, I went to a small coffee shop, the old men there were smoking pipes and playing chess.... I suck at chess, but the pipe remains.


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

Aninjaforallseasons said:


> When: This past year.
> Why: Puff peer pressure.
> 
> ipe:


:yo:

Nobody bombed me a pipe and baccy in say....a pass.  I just was innocently wandering around in the forums, and got suckered in by all the excellent folks here.


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## Andrewdk (Feb 3, 2011)

Excellent story Shawn, pity more non smokers don't take that "fit in" route.

Like most misguided teenagers I started smoking cigarettes, which my mum hated. In order to curb my smoking enthusiasim she was willing to let me smoke a pipe instead of cigs. This probably lasted about 6 months, and I damn well enjoyed it too, until I assume she realised that this had not turned me off smoking.

Went to cigs after that and stayed there for quite some time. Found this forum when looking around the internet for reviews when purchasing a box of cigars when my second kid was born. I occassionally wondered down to the pipe forum, then realised how inexpensive pipes/baccy where compared to humidors and cigars. Innocently opted in for the noobie pipe trade, oh man that first step is a long one.

About a year later around a dozen pipes and some 18 tobaccos in the "smoking now collection" with some 20 odd jars and tins in the cellar. Plus the company of this collection of maniacs to share the hobby with.


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

We are maniacs


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## steinr1 (Oct 22, 2010)

Smoking makes you look cool and sophisticated. Pipes more so. As does drinking and swearing. Ask any teenager. But maybe not about the pipe thing.

As many seem to have done, I started at University - already a cigarette smoker - because that's what a subset did and I carried on for maybe 15 years. Gave up smoking for ten or so, then took back onto cigars. In the UK we have the benefit of NO EMBARGO. Five years or so later, back came the pipe. Cigars have dropped away steeply; only have perhaps 20 years supply left (advantage of working for an airline industry company - steady supply from country of origin. Hard to resist.) of THOSE type and 10 or so of Manila's finest. How sad. Pipe is very much a minority habit in the UK and anti-smoking laws are not helping. I'm bringing them back though... Overall about 30+ years so far, on and off.


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## B.L. Sims (Jan 14, 2010)

I started Summer 2010 if I remember correctly.
Why? Always wanted to try it. I had already been smoking cigars for 2 years and wanted something different. I didnt always want to commit to smoking an entire cigar and felt bad pitching dollars vs pennies. It also holds some sentimental value as I remember being young and the smells from my grandad cleaning his pipes. My father also smoked one but that was before I came along.


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## Jeff10236 (Nov 21, 2010)

I am 42, I've been smoking a pipe for 21 years, not counting the month or so I smoked a Dr. Grabow the summer I turned 18.

When I was 9 years old I had my first cigarette when my best friend stole a pack from his father's carton of Salem. By 13 I smoked semi-regularly (it was the early-80's, clerks didn't question if you were buying for yourself or your parents, and the law wasn't strict about it yet).

When I was a kid, my grandfather smoked a pipe. I always loved the smell. Eventually, I had to pick it up myself.

I have smoked pipes since I was 21, picked up cigars a year later, and I finally managed to quit cigarettes when I was 25 or 26 (after many attempts, one of which had me also throwing away my pipes and quitting cigars for about 6 months).


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## mikebjrtx (May 21, 2012)

I started less than a year ago to help relax and deal with the stress from work and my mom's illness. The rest of my family has smoked cigarettes forever but I just can't stand them.


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## drastic_quench (Sep 12, 2008)

I was a three sport athlete in high school so tobacco that you didn't have to inhale appealed to me. I started with gas station cigars and worked my way up to decent ones. I asked my girlfriend for a pipe, "you know, a wood one" for my 19th or 20th birthday. I knew no one who smoked one, but it seemed cool. Like using a straight razor instead of the ubiquitous Mach 3. She went to a tobacconist and came through with a handsome Chacom Dublin. I smoked it irregularly in college. Mostly I was disappointed in the taste. The local tobacconist was a really nice guy, but he only stocked bulk aromatics. So I went back to cigars, because they tasted like tobacco, and I didn't know quality full-flavor tobacco existed because that shop was my only window into the tobacco world. 

Fast forward to grad school, and I stumbled onto online pipe and tobacco retailers. A Peterson and a tin of Westminster and Fillmore, and I was off.


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## Kevin Keith (Jan 24, 2010)

36Bones said:


> We are a bunch of meanies, aren't we. :mischief:


Yes, and bad influences.


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## Jogi (Dec 4, 2009)

Not much of a story in my case, in fact some of you may even be disturbed... :tongue1:

I simply love the smell of tobacco smoke, especially the bitter-ish yet kinda crisp "room-note" of good quality cigarettes like Davidoffs etc (IF ther's such a thing asgood quality cigarettes!), which is usually called stale smoke... :behindsofa:. I know it sounds gross and disgusting, but this was the time I had never smelt pipe tobacco smoke... So, in order to be able to enjoy the smokey smell, I decided to smoke a bit, but I hate cigarette smoking and how they make the *smoker* smell nasty, so I ended up trying cheapie cigars but they didn't really work for me.

During all this, I was also looking for online information, books etc. about pipes and cigars and that's how I found this forum. Only a little while after that, I got my first corncobs and some Captain Black White. I immediately fell in love with the terrific room note, the way that slightly burnt, smokey sweet aroma clings to your clothes and hair, *and* the way a cleaned, rested pipe smells the next day after smoking...

Only recently did I recently experience the pleasure of a "proper" tobacco, Dunhill EMP. Its aromas were even better than those from the aromatic stuff. It's been more than 2 years since I started pipe smoking. I haven't smoked much, only a couple bowls over the weekend, but I'm really enjoying it and I think I'm hooked for life... Needless to say, I have somehow developed a dislike for the stale cigarette smoke smell...

(Just my opinion about the cigarette smoke thing. If you happen to smoke cigarettes, please know that this was not intended to be rude to you in any way. I am a firm believer of "Smoke What You Like and Like What You Smoke. :grouphug


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## Eric_H (Apr 4, 2012)

I started when I was 22 because I wanted a cheaper alternative to cigars, but I guess I also wanted to kick the cigs too. Then I tried a few blends, started to refine my technique and now I reach for a pipe more frequently then I open my humidor. :smile:


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## Dr. Plume (Sep 24, 2012)

I forgot to pay a tribute. A local old guy Jerry is the guy who taught be how to smoke cigars and pipes. Everything from aros to English dunhil tobaccos. We sat down together in his shop and smoked in a couple of arm chairs to kill the time. He and a guy named mike who introduced me to this forum I forgot his username are responsible for passing this awesome tradition down to me. The main lesson that they taught me though was to always pass it on and help get somebody else started. During the course of those two years I got at least ten friends on pipes with tobacco and it was great. We would sit on my dorm balcony drink beer and smoke. Now that I am married and live in Paris I have busted out the pipe on campus a few times and many people are expressing interest in getting involved. Maybe I will start a club....in truth we all start in different ways but e got to pass it on to make sure it's around for others who have no IDE what they are missing.


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## floogy (Jul 2, 2012)

July, because I wanted to and cigars are are so expensive. The last time I smoked a cigar it made me want to smoke my pipe. The variety available with pipes is so much more than cigars or cigarettes. Besides, they don't have cigars with latakia in them.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

floogy said:


> Besides, they don't have cigars with latakia in them.


:biglaugh:


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